Terms : Hide Images
| 4788332608 | Active voice | One of the two "voices" of verbs ( see also passive voice). When the verb of a sentence is in the activevoice, the subject is doing the acting, as in the sentence "Kevin hit the ball." Kevin (the subject of thesentence) acts in relation to the ball. | 0 | |
| 4788332609 | Allegory | a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one (i.e. the Crucible is an allegory for McCarthyism) | 1 | |
| 4788332610 | Alliteration | the use of the same letter or sound at the beginning of words in a sentence, especially in poetry | 2 | |
| 4788332611 | Allusion | a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance. It does not describe in detail the person or thing to which it refers. It is just a passing comment and the writer expects the reader to possess enough knowledge to spot the allusion and grasp its importance in a text. For instance, you make a literary allusion the moment you say, "I do not approve of this quixotic idea," Quixotic means stupid and impractical derived from Cervantes's "Don Quixote", a story of a foolish knight and his misadventures. | 3 | |
| 4788332612 | Anachronism | derived from Greek; means "misplaced in time"—something (such as a word, an object, or an event) that is mistakenly placed in a time where it does not belong in a story | 4 | |
| 4788332613 | Analogy | a comparison between two situations, processes, things etc. that is intended to show that the two are similar | 5 | |
| 4788332614 | Anaphora | repetition of a word or expression at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, sentences, or verses especially for rhetorical or poetic effect. Lincoln's "we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground" is an example of anaphora. | 6 | |
| 4788332615 | Anastrophe | deliberate changing of word order for emphasis. Ex: Bright he was not. (Normally, He was not bright.) | 7 | |
| 4788332616 | Anticlimax | when an action produces far smaller results than one had been led to expect | 8 | |
| 4788332617 | Antihero | a protagonist who is markedly unheroic: morally weak, cowardly, dishonest, etc. | 9 | |
| 4788332618 | Antithesis | a rhetorical opposition or contrast of ideas by means of grammatical arrangement of words, clauses or sentences. Ex: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness. . ." and "Agree to disagree." | 10 | |
| 4788332619 | Aphorism | a brief statement of an opinion or elemental truth. "Vision is the art of seeing the invisible." -Jonathan Swift | 11 | |
| 4788332620 | Apostrophe | In literature, apostrophe is a figure of speech sometimes represented by exclamation "O". A writer or a speaker, using an apostrophe, detaches himself from the reality and addresses an imaginary character in his speech. | 12 | |
| 4788332621 | Archetype | a recurring pattern of situation, character or symbol existing universally and instinctively | 13 | |
| 4788332622 | Aside | a speech (usually just a short comment) made by an actor to the audience, as though momentarily stepping outside of the action on stage | 14 | |
| 4788332623 | Assonance | Assonance takes place when two or more words close to one another repeat the same vowel sound but start with different consonant sounds. For instance, "Men sell the wedding bells." | 15 | |
| 4788332624 | Asyndeton | Asyndeton is derived from a Greek word asyndeton which means unconnected. It is a stylistic device used in literature and poetry to intentionally eliminate conjunctions between the phrases and in the sentence, yet maintain the grammatical accuracy. This literary tool helps in reducing the indirect meaning of the phrase and presents it in a concise form. | 16 | |
| 4788332625 | Ballad | a long, narrative poem, usually in very regular meter and rhyme; typically has a naive folksy quality | 17 | |
| 4788332626 | Bathos | refers to an abrupt and often ludicrous transition from the elevated to the ordinary (a form of anticlimax), or to an excessively sentimental demonstration of pathos. The word bathos (adjective form, bathetic) almost always has a negative connotation. | 18 | |
| 4788332627 | Bildungsroman | a novel about the early years of somebody's life, exploring the development of his or her character and personality; a "coming of age tale" | 19 | |
| 4788332628 | Blank verse | a literary device defined as un-rhyming verse written in iambic pentameter. In poetry and prose, it has a consistent meter with 10 syllables in each line (pentameter); where, unstressed syllables are followed by stressed ones and five of which are stressed but do not rhyme. It is also known as un-rhymed iambic pentameter. | 20 | |
| 4788332629 | Cacophony | a harsh, discordant mixture of sounds | 21 | |
| 4788332630 | Caesura | in modern prosody : a usually rhetorical break in the flow of sound in the middle of a line of verse; Greek & Latin prosody a break in the flow of sound in a verse caused by the ending of a word within a foot | 22 | |
| 4788332631 | Carpe diem | an aphorism (a concise statement containing a subjective truth or observation cleverly and pithily written) usually translated "seize the day", taken from a poem written in the Odes in 23 BC by the Latin poet Horace | 23 | |
| 4788332632 | Catharsis | the "cleansing" of emotion an audience member experiences, having lived (vicariously) through the experiences presented on stage | 24 | |
| 4788332633 | Chiasmus | a rhetorical device in which two or more clauses are balanced against each other by the reversal of their structures in order to produce an artistic effect. Let us try to understand chiasmus with the help of an example "Never let a Fool Kiss You or a Kiss Fool You." | 25 | |
| 4788332634 | Climax | the point of highest tension in a plot | 26 | |
| 4788332635 | Colloquialism | word or phrase used in everyday conversational English that isn't a part of accepted "schoolbook" English | 27 | |
| 4788332636 | Connotation | an additional sense or senses associated with or suggested by a word or phrase. | 28 | |
| 4788332637 | Conceit | an imaginative poetic image, or writing that contains such an image, especially a comparison that is extreme or far-fetched; a startling or unusual metaphor, or a metaphor developed and expanded upon over several lines | 29 | |
| 4788332638 | Consonance | refers to repetitive sounds produced by consonants within a sentence or phrase. This repetition often takes place in quick succession such as in pitter, patter | 30 | |
| 4788332639 | Couplet | two lines of poetry that are next to each other | 31 | |
| 4788332640 | Denotation | literal or dictionary meanings of a word in contrast to its connotative or associated meanings. | 32 | |
| 4788332641 | Dialect | the language used by the people of a specific area, class, district or any other group of people. | 33 | |
| 4788332642 | Diction | word choice of the speaker or author | 34 | |
| 4788332643 | Elegy | a formal meditative poem or lament for the dead | 35 | |
| 4788332644 | Ellipses | The deliberate omission of a word or words readily implied by context | 36 | |
| 4788332645 | Enjambment | the continuation of a syntactic unit from one line or couplet of a poem to the next with no pause | 37 | |
| 4788332646 | Epic | a very long narrative poem on a serious theme in a dignified style | 38 | |
| 4788332647 | Epistrophe | a stylistic device that can be defined as the repetition of phrases or words at the end of the clauses or sentences. It is also called epiphora. "(This) government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth." -Abraham Lincoln | 39 | |
| 4788332648 | Epistolary novel | An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of documents. The usual form is letters, although diary entries, newspaper clippings and other documents are sometimes used. | 40 | |
| 4788332649 | Epitaph | lines that commemorate the dead at their burial place; may be written on a tombstone or spoken at a funeral | 41 | |
| 4788332650 | Ethos | the ethical appeal, means to convince an audience of the author's credibility or character. An author would use ethos to show to his audience that he is a credible source and is worth listening to. Ethos is the Greek word for "character." The word "ethic" is derived from ethos. | 42 | |
| 4788332651 | Euphemism | a word or phrase used in place of a term that might be considered too direct, harsh, unpleasant, or offensive | 43 | |
| 4788332652 | Euphony | pleasing, harmonious sounds like "s" and "r" | 44 | |
| 4788332653 | Farce | a play or movie in which people get involved in silly or unlikely situations that are intended to make you laugh | 45 | |
| 4788332654 | Foil | a character that shows qualities that are in contrast with the qualities of another character with the objective to highlight the traits of the other character. The term foil, though generally being applied for a contrasting character, may also be used for any comparison that is drawn to portray a difference between two things. Example: Unferth is the foil to Beowulf. | 46 | |
| 4788332655 | Foot | a basic unit of rhythm in poetry, made up of a fixed combination of stressed and unstressed or long and short syllables | 47 | |
| 4788332656 | Foreshadowing | an event or statement in a narrative that suggests, in miniature, a larger event that comes later | 48 | |
| 4788332657 | Free verse | poetry that is free from limitations of regular meter or rhythm and does not rhyme with fixed forms | 49 | |
| 4788332658 | Genre | a subcategory of literature | 50 | |
| 4788332659 | Gothic novel | gloomy and suspenseful novels popular in the 18th century; a subset of Romantic literature | 51 | |
| 4788332660 | Hubris | the excessive pride or ambition that leads to the main character's downfall | 52 | |
| 4788332661 | Hyperbole | a figure of speech, which involves an exaggeration of ideas for the sake of emphasis | 53 | |
| 4788332662 | Imagery | to use figurative language to represent objects, actions and ideas in such a way that it appeals to our physical senses. | 54 | |
| 4788332663 | In medias res | straight in or into the middle of a sequence of events, especially in a literary narrative that has no introduction | 55 | |
| 4788332664 | Irony | a figure of speech in which words are used in such a way that their intended meaning is different from the actual meaning of the words. It may also be a situation that may end up in quite a different way than what is generally anticipated. In simple words, it is a difference between the appearance and the reality | 56 | |
| 4788332665 | Verbal irony | Usually figure of speech, where what is said is the opposite of what is meant. | 57 | |
| 4788332666 | Dramatic irony | The audience knows something that the character does not. | 58 | |
| 4788332667 | Situational irony | Something happens in a situation that is different from what was expected. | 59 | |
| 4788332668 | Jargon | a use of specific phrases and words by writers in a particular situation, profession or trade. These specialized terms are used to convey hidden meanings accepted and understood in that field. | 60 | |
| 4788332669 | Juxtaposition | a literary technique in which two or more ideas, places, characters and their actions are placed side by side in a narrative or a poem for the purpose of developing comparisons and contrasts | 61 | |
| 4788332670 | Kenning | a compound expression in Old English and Old Norse poetry with metaphorical meaning, usually consisting of 2 words (usually nouns) and often hyphenated; e.g., oar-steed = ship, life-liquid = blood | 62 | |
| 4788332671 | Litotes | a form of understatement in which the negative of the contrary is used to achieve emphasis Ex: He is not a bad dancer. | 63 | |
| 4788332672 | Logos | the appeal to logic, means to convince an audience by use of logic or reason. To use logos would be to cite facts and statistics, historical and literal analogies, and citing certain authorities on a subject. Logos is the Greek word for "word." The word "logic" is derived from logos. | 64 | |
| 4788332673 | Lyric (poem) | poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person. | 65 | |
| 4788332674 | Malapropism | a use of an incorrect word in place of a similar sounding word that results in a nonsensical and humorous expression. | 66 | |
| 4788332675 | Metaphor | a figure of speech which makes an implicit, implied or hidden comparison between two things or objects that are poles apart from each other but have some characteristics common between them. | 67 | |
| 4788332676 | Meter | a rhythm of accented and unaccented syllables which are organized into patterns, called feet. | 68 | |
| 4788332677 | Metonymy | a figure of speech that replaces the name of a thing with the name of something else with which it is closely associated. | 69 | |
| 4788332678 | Metric line | a line named according to the number of feet composing it (such as iambic) | 70 | |
| 4788332679 | Motif | a phrase, idea, event or image that, through repetition, serves to unify or convey a theme in a literary work | 71 | |
| 4788332680 | Non sequitur | a statement or idea that does NOT follow logically from the one before | 72 | |
| 4788332681 | Octave | eight poetic lines | 73 | |
| 4788332682 | Ode | a poem written for or about a particular person, thing, or event (Ode to Joy) | 74 | |
| 4788332683 | Onomatopoeia | a word, which imitates the natural sounds of a thing. It creates a sound effect that mimics the thing described, making the description more expressive and interesting | 75 | |
| 4788332684 | Oxymoron | a phrase composed of opposites; a contradiction. Ex: "jumbo shrimp" | 76 | |
| 4788332685 | Paradox | a statement that appears to be self-contradictory or silly but may include a latent truth | 77 | |
| 4788332686 | Parallelism | the use of components in a sentence that are grammatically the same; or similar in their construction, sound, meaning or meter | 78 | |
| 4788332687 | Panegyric | extravagant praise delivered in formal speech or writing | 79 | |
| 4788332688 | Parody | an imitation of a particular writer, artist or a genre, exaggerating it deliberately to produce a comic effect | 80 | |
| 4788332689 | Passive Voice | the opposite of active voice; used when something happens to someone. Example: "Sam was choked by the assailant" rather than "The assailant choked Sam" (the first is passive voice and the second is active voice). Use of passive voice indicates that Sam is the important character in the sentence. Essays should be written in active voice rather than passive. | 81 | |
| 4788332690 | Pastoral | pastoral poems are set in beautiful rural landscapes | 82 | |
| 4788332691 | Pathetic Fallacy | the attribution of human feelings and responses to inanimate things or animals, especially in art and literature. Generally, Pathetic fallacy is confused with personification. The fact is that they differ in their function. Pathetic fallacy is a kind of personification that gives human emotions to inanimate objects of nature for example referring to weather features reflecting a mood. Personification, on the other hand, is a broader term. It gives human attributes to abstract ideas, animate objects of nature or inanimate non-natural objects. For example, the sentence "The somber clouds darkened our mood" is a pathetic fallacy as human attributes are given to an inanimate object of nature reflecting a mood. But, "The sparrow talked to us" is a personification because the animate object of nature "sparrow" is given the human quality of "talking". | 83 | |
| 4788332692 | Pathos | the emotional appeal, means to persuade an audience by appealing to their emotions. Authors use pathos to invoke sympathy from an audience; to make the audience feel what what the author wants them to feel. Pathos is the Greek word for both "suffering" and "experience." The words empathy and pathetic are derived from pathos. | 84 | |
| 4788332693 | Pentameter | a verse with five poetic feet per line; 10 syllables | 85 | |
| 4788332694 | Personification | giving non-human things human characteristics | 86 | |
| 4788332695 | Ploce | a rhetorical term used for one of the most commonly used figures of stress—it means repeating a word within the same line or clause. Example: "Make war upon themselves: blood against blood / Self against self" -William Shakespeare | 87 | |
| 4788332696 | Point of view | the mode of narration that an author employs to let the readers "hear" and "see" what takes place in a story, poem, essay etc. | 88 | |
| 4788332697 | Polysyndeton; a stylistic device in which several coordinating conjunctions are used in succession in order to achieve an artistic effect; example | "And Joshua, and all of Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had." (The Bible) | 89 | |
| 4788332698 | Pun | a play on words in which a humorous effect is produced by using a word that suggests two or more meanings or by exploiting similar sounding words having different meanings | 90 | |
| 4788332699 | Quatrain | a four line poem or four line unit of a longer poem | 91 | |
| 4788332700 | Refrain | a repeated line in a poem or song at regular intervals | 92 | |
| 4788332701 | Repetition | the repeating of a word or phrase for emphasis; often appears in poetry and sometimes reinforces or even substitutes for meter | 93 | |
| 4788332702 | Rhyme | the echo or imitation of a sound; a rhyme scheme is a regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem; internal rhyme occurs within a line of poetry; end rhyme occurs when the last word of each line rhymes; slant or half rhyme occurs when two words sound close but not exactly alike (such as grace/haste); perfect rhyme (time/lime) | 94 | |
| 4788332703 | Rhythm | a literary device which demonstrates the long and short patterns through stressed and unstressed syllables particularly in verse form. | 95 | |
| 4788332704 | Satire | a technique employed by writers to expose and criticize foolishness and corruption of an individual or a society by using humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule | 96 | |
| 4788332705 | Sestet | last 6 lines of a sonnet | 97 | |
| 4788332706 | Sestina | a poem with six stanzas of six lines and a final triplet, all stanzas having the same six words at the line-ends in six different sequences that follow a fixed pattern, and with all six words appearing in the closing three-line envoi | 98 | |
| 4788332707 | Setting | where a story, poem, or other work takes place | 99 | |
| 4788332708 | Shift | a change in setting (place or time), tone, or speakers; identifying shifts in poetry is important for determining the overall purpose and tone of the poem; rhetorical shift is the change of attitude when using words in a conversation | 100 | |
| 4788332709 | Simile | a figure of speech that makes a comparison, showing similarities between two different things. Unlike a metaphor, a simile draws resemblance with the help of the words "like" or "as". Therefore, it is a direct comparison. | 101 | |
| 4788332710 | Soliloquy | a popular literary device often used in drama to reveal the innermost thoughts of a character. It is a great technique used to convey the progress of action of the play by means of expressing a character's thoughts about a certain character or past, present or upcoming event while talking to himself without acknowledging the presence of any other person. (Hamlet) | 102 | |
| 4788332711 | Sonnet | 14 line poem | 103 | |
| 4788332712 | Petrarchan or Italian sonnet | uses two rhymes for the octave - the pattern is either a-b-a-b, a-b-a-b or a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a - and two or three rhymes for the sestet - the pattern is either c-d-e, c-d-e or c-d-c-d-c-d or c-d-c, c-d-c. | 104 | |
| 4788332713 | Shakespearean or English sonnet | follows the pattern a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g. | 105 | |
| 4788332714 | Spenserian sonnet | follows the pattern a-b-a-b, b-c-b-c, c-d-c-d, e-e. | 106 | |
| 4788332715 | Stanza | a stanza is a division of four or more lines having a fixed length, meter or rhyming scheme. | 107 | |
| 4788332716 | Suspension of disbelief | the demand made of a theater audience to accept the limitations of staging and supply the details with imagination; the acceptance on an audience's or reader's part of the incidents of plot in a play or story | 108 | |
| 4788332717 | Symbol | a device in literature where an object represents an idea | 109 | |
| 4788332718 | Synecdoche | a literary device in which a part of something represents the whole or it may use a whole to represent a part. | 110 | |
| 4788332719 | Theme | a main idea or an underlying meaning of a literary work which may be stated directly or indirectly. | 111 | |
| 4788332720 | Thesis | the main position of an argument; the central contention that will be supported | 112 | |
| 4788332721 | Tragic flaw | in a tragedy, this is the weakness of character in an otherwise good (or even great) individual that ultimately leads to his demise | 113 | |
| 4788332722 | Vernacular | the common language of the people | 114 | |
| 4788332723 | Verse | single line of poetry | 115 | |
| 4788332724 | Villanelle | poetic form calculated to appear simple and spontaneous but consisting of nineteen lines and a prescribed pattern of rhyme | 116 | |
| 4788332725 | Zeugma | a figure of speech in which a word, usually a verb or an adjective, applies to more than one noun, blending together grammatically and logically different ideas. For instance, in a sentence "John lost his coat and his temper", the verb "lost" applies to both noun "coat" and "temper". Losing a coat and losing temper are logically and grammatically different ideas that are brought together in the above-mentioned sentence. | 117 |
